YouTube gamers fined under Gambling Act in legal first

Two popular YouTubers have been fined over an web site that let children gamble using 'virtual currency' on the Fifa 17 game. Dylan Rigby and Craig Douglas, known as NepentheZ, admitted breaching gambling rules with FutGalaxy web site.

On Monday 6 February 2017, following a prosecution brought by the Gambling Commission, Dylan Rigby of Colchester, Essex and Craig Douglas of Ilford, Essex entered guilty pleas to offences under the Gambling Act 2005.

In court, the pair admitted to being directors of Game Gold Tradings Limited, a company which operated and advertised FutGalaxy.com which generated profits of £96,000 between July 2015 and February 2016.

During the opening of the case, the court was shown a video of Douglas from his YouTube channel saying to the camera: "You don’t have to be 18 for this, because this is a virtual currency."

Rigby, of Colchester, Essex and Douglas, of Ferndown, Dorset, were fined £24,000 and £16,000 respectively by the district judge, Jack McGarva who said the men had not been honest about their finances.

Ordering Rigby to pay prosecution costs of £150,000 and Douglas £75,000, McGarva said: "The aggravating features of these offences are they were committed over a relatively long period of about six months. Children were gambling on your site. It’s impossible to know how many or the effect on them."

"In my opinion, both of you were aware of the use of the site by children and the attractiveness of it to children. At the very least, you turned a blind eye to it."

FutGalaxy.com (which has since closed) took bets on football matches played in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy.

Minutes after the fine was issued, Craig Douglas tweeted "I owe a huge apology to my family and close friends for putting them through this process, and appreciate all those that stood by me."